Perhaps the most prevalent practice for applying pesticides to plants is by spraying aqueous liquors onto the plants to be treated. The spray equipment customarily used for the application of aqueous formulations of plant treatment agents is well known in the art and generally comprises one or more filters and/or nozzles. Some technical difficulties are associated with spraying practice when predominantly aqueous compositions of pesticides which are essentially water insoluble, are employed. In such cases, often the filters and nozzles are clogged as a result of crystal growth of the water insoluble active ingredients. Certain pesticidally active azole derivates show a particular tendency to crystallize in such situations.
A particular method for overcoming this problem is by inhibiting or preventing the crystal growth of the pesticide in the sprayer parts by employing a crystal growth inhibitor in the pesticidal composition. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,225 describes the use of certain alkyl carboxylic acid dimethylamides as crystallization inhibitors of azole fungicides. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,118 describes the use of alkyl lactam as a crystal growth inhibitor of azole fungicides.
The crystal growth inhibitors disclosed in the prior publications do not offer a solution for all needs, practices and conditions employed in agriculture. Thus, there is an ongoing need to develop further crystal growth inhibitors applied in agriculture which overcome the shortcoming of the prior art and to provide formulations comprising such inhibitors.